Different Dental Aging Charts or Atlas Methods Used for Age Estimation– A Review

The literature search for articles written in the English language in PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and Google Scholar database by using MeSH terms Atlas methods, charts for age estimation, Schematic representation for age estimation. Age estimation plays an important role in forensic medicine, clinical dentistry, pediatric endocrinology, and archaeology. Age estimation is of wider importance in forensic medicine, not only for the purpose of identifying deceased victims but also in connection with crimes and accidents. Estimation of age by examining the living or skeletal and cadavers remains of an individual or population group has been a conventional primary identification process over the years. In mass disaster situations, the need for an accurate, reliable, cheap, fast and easy-to-use method is imperative for the victim identification process, especially when the lack of personnel or resources dictates the help of untrained volunteers. In these cases, using a comparison method in the form of an Atlas or a chart diagram or Atlas software with the radiograph of developing teeth that would give an estimate of chronological age would be ideal. Hereby it explains the broad view of Atlas methods used for age estimation.